A strategic, story-driven superhero simulator that mixes comedy, drama, and bureaucracy with anime-inspired visuals.
Telltale Games made hit story-based games like The Walking Dead, Tales from the Borderlands, Batman: The Telltale Series, and The Wolf Among Us. Dispatch was developed by AdHoc Studio, a studio composed of former Telltale Games employees. The story and characters in Dispatch demonstrate the studio’s experience.
Still, this game takes a different approach, shifting from dark fairy tales and snarky vault hunters to superhero bureaucracy and office-style chaos. This is AdHoc Studio’s first game, and it’s interesting to see how they’ve used the story elements from their other games while also adding new ones.
Dispatch builds expectation week by week with episodic releases that remind me of Telltale games. This way, players can enjoy the story and gameplay in small chunks. The company also worked with voice actors and celebrities, such as Aaron Paul (Jesse from Breaking Bad), as well as internet content creators, to give the game a movie-like feel and some humor.
It feels like Dispatch is a spiritual continuation of Telltale’s work, but with a superhero twist. In Telltale games, you usually played as the main character and interacted with a world full of stories. In Dispatch, you play as a manager and control the actions of other heroes while combining storylines, strategy, and funny chaos.
It’s a mix of The Office and The Boys, with the ridiculousness of office comedy set against a world that is always on fire. Players are in charge of heroes, disasters, and people’s egos, but they have to do all of this from a desk instead of a mech suit or flying over the city.
It’s The Office meets The Boys, with superheroes you actually have to manage.
You play as Robert Robertson, a former hero known as Mecha Man. His high-tech mechanical suit was destroyed after he lost badly. Robert is hired by the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), essentially a call center for managing heroes and villains who have reformed.
He has nothing but smoke, armor, and no job to his credit. Your job is to keep the city from falling into chaos while sending them on jobs that range from simple situations, such as saving cats, to high-stakes bank robberies or public appearances.
The story mixes superhero tropes with jokes about life in general. It features cynical, parody-based humor that evokes comparisons to Invincible and Watchmen, but also includes touching character stories. The writing adds sexual tension, rude humor, and witty chatter without making the story too heavy.
The performances, especially Aaron Paul’s as Robert, give the nonsense real emotional weight. Even though the setting is cartoonish, the story feels more relatable because players experience Robert’s anger, friendship with his heroes, and moments of reflection.
The exchanges between characters are great. Because heroes have unique personalities, grudges, and interests, the way your team works together can make or break tasks. Choices have small effects that can have big results.
Failing to consider individuals’ personalities or the strengths best suited for the goal can lead to problems, injuries, or even mission failures. End-of-episode reports let you see how your choices stack up against those of other players, which makes the game even more fun.
Even though the story is told in episodes, it does a great job of combining daily tasks for the hero with larger plot lines. You’ll care about how the characters change and grow, and you’ll be looking forward to seeing how the decisions they make in one show might affect the next.
Robert Robertson isn’t just a hero — he’s a manager of chaos, and the game makes you feel it.
There are three main ways to play Dispatch: story-driven plot, hero management, and mini-games that happen from time to time. Storytelling in the style of a novel or anime, with beautifully animated cutscenes, dialogue choices, and small story paths that you can affect.
There is no third-person roaming or environmental involvement like in other Telltale games. Instead, the story is told through a moving picture with images that look like both anime and Western comic books. There aren’t many quick-time events, but they are there when important things happen.
Hero dispatching is a unique aspect of the game and one of its most important strategic elements. When things happen in the city, the map comes to life. When there is a crisis, you choose heroes to handle missions based on their intelligence, charisma, mobility, and assault and defense power.
Assigning heroes isn’t just based on numbers; characters and how well they work together are also important. Some heroes get along while others do better when paired up. Missions can change in the middle of the game, like escort jobs turning into mischief or PR disasters turning into therapy sessions, so you have to keep adapting.
In between the gameplay and story, there are also short games where you have to hack things. To help heroes in real time, you move between nodes, enter direction codes, and change the surroundings. Even though they’re easy, they’re fun and a nice change of pace without being too much.
The game’s main strength is its mix of story and tactics. Dispatch isn’t as “playable” as most action games, but the choices you make about which heroes to use and how to handle resources are important. It’s tense to watch your heroes succeed or fail without being able to directly affect them. This makes wins feel won and failures feel funny and stressful.
You don’t control the superheroes — you manage them, and that’s way harder than punching bots in a mech suit.
The delivery system takes care of most of the combat. Instead of fighting enemies yourself, you send heroes on tasks and keep an eye on how they do. Knowing the heroes’ numbers, the mission’s nature, and how things can change can help you win.
Missions have more than one goal, and sometimes you need more than one skill to reach all of them. For example, you might need social skills to negotiate, smart skills to sneak in, or raw strength to protect yourself.
In some levels, there are mini-puzzles that are like hacking, where you have to change nodes to open doors or turn off defenses. These sequences are short and easy to understand. They focus on timing and planning instead of complicated physics. Security systems sometimes go off and chase heroes across mission grids. This adds a light tactical challenge without being too hard.
The game is a good mix of being hard and easy to play. You rarely get punished wrongly, but to be successful, you need to pay attention to the little things and plan ahead. The way that events change in the middle of tasks keeps them from feeling repetitive and keeps players on their toes.
The missions evolve mid-run — an escort could turn into sabotage, and PR work might spiral into therapy sessions.
Heroes get experience when they complete missions correctly. As you level up, you can improve your battle strength, mobility, or charisma, and you can also unlock special skills like flight, faster mission travel, or extra benefits for teaming up with certain heroes. XP rewards inspire players to try new things and give them a reason to use different combinations of heroes.
The progression method works with the game loop without any problems. Strategically investing in heroes affects the success of a task, and finding hidden skills or synergies between heroes is a fun puzzle in and of itself. XP isn’t earned through tedious jobs; it’s earned naturally through play, which keeps players focused on the story and strategy instead of doing the same things over and over.
Leveling up heroes isn’t just cosmetic — it changes how you approach every mission.
The art style in Dispatch is a lively mix of Western comic books and anime. The game is heavy on over-the-top facial emotions, fast-paced fight scenes, and well-done animations. The characters move easily, and the action scenes feel like they belong in a movie theater. There isn’t as much jank as there was in earlier Telltale games; even low-end computers can run the game without any problems.
From busy city streets to crime scenes, the settings are realistic and full of detail. It’s easy to keep track of stats, skills, and interactions between heroes and villains during missions because they look different. Overall, the graphics make both the story and the gameplay better, making the whole thing more immersive and stylish.
It flirts with Wolf Among Us comic book grit but adds kinetic flair — a rare combo of style and polish.
Voice acting is one of the best parts. Aaron Paul gives Robert Robertson depth by balancing his harsh cynicism with funny, lovable lines. Secondary characters, whose voices are done by well-known voice artists and internet stars, add humor and emotional depth. There are times when speech borders on forced vulgarity, but these happen very rarely and mostly add to the game’s over-the-top comedic tone.
The soundtrack is simple yet effective, with humorous background music punctuating lighter scenes and licensed songs enhancing key moments. Environmental sounds improve immersion during tasks, hacking scenes, and navigating cities. Overall, the sound design adds to both the story and the gameplay, making the game even more of a mix of anime, western comics, and strategy elements.
Dispatch is a one-of-a-kind mix of tactics, story, and humor. It breaks traditional superhero tropes by placing players in the role of a superhero manager rather than a hero. It also has Telltale-style stories, dynamic gameplay, and memorable characters. Every choice you make is important and fun because of the dispatch system, missions that change over time, hero growth, and easy puzzles.
The voice acting is great, the graphics and animation are polished, and the story is interesting, with a good mix of fun and real heart. Fans of fast-paced fighting might find the game easy to play, but the strategic depth, story payoff, and strange humor make it stand out in games with episodic stories.
